Stockholm Syndrome
by teamsalvatore123
Summary: Klaus, in need of leverage and revenge, kidnaps Caroline on his way out of Mystic Falls. Locked away in a cell in a basement in the middle of nowhere with only Klaus for company isn't really the most appealing thing in the world for Caroline. And then things really start to get ugly.
1. Chapter 1

"Caroline…"

She huffed. "Back off Tyler, before I stake you myself." She was tired of him following her around and trying to apologize.

"I didn't mean to! I said no but it just happened anyway, like it was completely out of my control." He pleaded.

"Bite me." Caroline snapped and then gave a humorless smile. "Oh, wait." And then she slammed the door in his face. "Good for nothing hybrids." She grumbled to herself.

A voice chuckled. "I beg to differ." Klaus stood before her with his lips tipped upwards. "You're looking well today, Caroline."

She didn't dare move. "How did you get in here?" She asked. "Where's my mother?"

"I guess in your haze you forgot that I was invited in yesterday in order to save your life. And your mother is safe at work. I'm not here to harm her."

"Then why are you here?"

He smiled at her. "It seems that you're becoming collateral damage again, sweet Caroline." His voice was eerily soothing. "You see, sweetheart, right now Stefan has the upper hand. Now, I don't like not being in control so I'm going to have to kidnap you. Nothing personal, but I just figured you would be the easiest to get to, now that I have been invited inside. Plus, you wouldn't make for such bad company."

Caroline scoffed. "You're not going to kidnap me." She said with false confidence. "I won't go with you."

Klaus shrugged. "Suit yourself, love." And then he stepped forward at lightning speed and snapped her neck in one swift movement. "I didn't want to have to do that, love." He spoke to her unconscious form. "It will make for quite the lonely card ride. However, you insisted on doing this the hard way."

Klaus bent down, grabbed Caroline's limp wrists and started dragging her out the door. Hopefully, none of the neighbours came out. He didn't have much time to compel anyone.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Welcome readers and thanks for the quick reviews! I promise that all my chapters will be fair length! That chapter was to just get the feel of the story and to grab some attention quick! Sort of like a prologue or a prelude! So here's the first real chapter.**

Klaus had tied Caroline's wrists and legs together with vervain ropes, so he wasn't worried when she awoke groggily during the middle of their long car ride. Klaus turned his head to smile at her. "Welcome back, love. Now tell me, what's your music preference? I'm thinking… Pop."

Caroline tugged at her restrained arms, tied around the back of the seat and the movement dug the ropes into her skin. She hissed. "What the hell Klaus? Untie me."

He shook his head. "Sorry, I can't trust that you won't try to run."

Caroline clenched her teeth together. "If only I had a dagger."

Klaus chuckled at her. "Now, now, let's not be mean."

"Seriously though, these ropes are killing my arms. What kind of genius move was it to turn me into an arm contortionist?"

Klaus was visibly annoyed, but he pulled over. If it were anyone but Caroline, he would have probably just snapped their neck again and kept on driving. But Klaus, for some reason, had a soft spot for this blonde baby vampire. He made his way over to the passenger side. "If you try to run, I will chase you down and snap your neck again."

"I won't run." She said quietly, defeated. He released the ropes from her wrists and legs and she cringed as the ropes peeled off of her burned flesh. She stretched out her stiff limbs and watched as the wounds disappeared.

Klaus got back into the car, shut the door and continued driving. But Caroline's vision quickly disappeared and everything went black. "What the hell are you doing now?" She muttered angrily.

"Blindfolding you, of course." Klaus replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I can't have you knowing where we're going and where we end up."

"I hate you." She grumbled.

She could only hear the smile in his voice as he said, "Join the club."

* * *

Caroline's vampire instincts hated having one of her senses cut off, so she spent the entire ride in a tense, uncomfortable silence. Klaus, of course, couldn't let it go. "Why so glum, sweetheart?"

"Go to hell." She spat.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Her resentment had gotten old. "Now Caroline, I think our time together will be much more pleasant if we let bygones be bygones."

"You just kidnapped me, snapped my neck, tied me up with vervain ropes in a car, blindfolded me and are driving me off into the middle of nowhere to be held captive as a pawn in your little game. That's not _exactly_ what I would call a bygone." She snapped.

Klaus smiled again. He found he had been doing much of that since he kidnapped Caroline, she was quite amusing. "I knew I liked you for a reason, Caroline." He said casually. "Not only are you beautiful but you're strong, fiery and full of spunk. It's very refreshing."

Caroline thought of a whole string of insults that she could have screamed at him, but instead, she decided that she should stay quiet, and she let out a spiteful "thanks."

And finally, after what seemed to have been forever, Klaus stopped the car. "We're here. Don't move." He said. She could hear the numbers being dialed on his cell phone. "Hello Bonnie." He said warmly. "How are you on this beautiful evening?"

"Where's Caroline?" Bonnie asked. "I know you have her."

"Would you like to talk to her, Bonnie? I can easily put her on the phone." He turned to Caroline. "Here you are, sweetheart. Your friend wants to talk to you."

He pressed the speaker button and guided the phone into Caroline's shaky hand. She grasped it tightly. "Bonnie?" She whispered.

"Are you okay, Caroline? Has he hurt you in any way?"

Klaus answered for her instead. "Caroline will not be harmed unless I don't get my coffins back. I'm coming directly to you Bonnie, because I'm quite aware of the love that you have for this young girl. And because Stefan proved to me last night, when he proceeded to almost drive the doppelganger off a bridge, that he no longer cares about anything. I will give you one month to use your witchy interference and convince Stefan to give me my family back. If you try any funny business, I will know about it and for each indiscretion, I will rip one of this baby vampire's limbs off. If you fail to succeed, I will rip her heart out of her chest. Are we clear?"

Caroline could hear her heart beating out of her chest and the fear swelled up and got stuck in her throat. "I understand." Bonnie said slowly.

"Good. Oh and Bonnie sweetheart, don't even bother trying a locator spell because I have my own set of witches more powerful than you could imagine, ready to fight you off. They will harm you, and maybe even kill you. And then Caroline will lose one of her beautiful limbs because of your mistake. Remember, if you die, there's no chance of me getting those coffins back. So that means Caroline dies as well. Goodbye Bonnie, I will see you in thirty days." He said sweetly, and then he hung up the phone.

Caroline found herself struck with fear and unable to move. She sat still for a moment, figuring that Klaus would say something or tell her that it was okay for her to get out. When he was silent, she reached her arms up to remove the blindfold.

His hand wrapped around her wrist. "Not so fast, love." He said. And then, he spoke again but he was closer than before. "Like I said, it's nothing personal."

And then she was suddenly immersed in blackness again.

Klaus couldn't help but feel bad that he kept snapping her neck, but he didn't want to take any chances. There was always the possibility that she was going to run and he would have to actually hurt her. And he did not fancy that at all.

He stroked her still face with regret, knowing that she'd never forgive him for kidnapping her and vowed to make the best of her company while he could. He had one whole month to bask in her presence before he had to give her back…

Unless he didn't get his coffins back. What would he do then? Would he have the ability to kill her?

He tucked a little curl behind her ear. He would have to find the will to kill her, or else risk being known as soft. Klaus couldn't afford to have a weakness, especially not one as pretty, small and weak as Caroline.

Yes, he would have to kill her.

But he didn't think about that now, he had time. Besides, he was almost positive that Bonnie would pull through for him. He wasn't the only one with affection for Caroline.

Sighing, he stared up at the abandoned Mikaelson mansion. They had many more, but this one had been untouched for centuries and he wasn't surprised, considering the location.

Lifting the unconscious blonde into his arms, he slammed the door shut with his foot and made his way up the steps. The mansion was quiet. It was late and his witches were probably sleeping on the top floor.

He made his way down to the basement and regretfully threw Caroline into one of the rooms that he had made into a cell type place, complete with vervain bars.

He didn't want to hold her captive like this, or torture her like you were supposed to do with a "prisoner." He just needed her as a bargaining chip really. However, he didn't want to risk her running away so he created this barrier to reassure him. He tried to make the place as comfortable as he could, complete with an enclosed washroom.

He gave one last glance to Caroline, knocked out cold on the bed and he pulled the fluffy comforter over her tiny body. He then closed the bars behind him, locked the cell and made his way upstairs. She probably wouldn't wake until morning.

"Goodnight, sweet Caroline." He whispered, turning off the lights and closing the door behind him.

* * *

Day #1

Caroline awoke for the second time with a sore neck and a throbbing head. Klaus had snapped her neck again.

She must have been out for a while though, because the sun was shining through a window that Caroline couldn't find. She sat up, realizing she was in the middle of an extremely comfy bed and then she blinked, trying to clear her bleary eyes.

Finally, she noticed the bars in front of her. "Great, a cell." She muttered, rolling out of bed and making her way over to the bars, ready to bust them open. Immediately, the skin on her hands began to burn. Hissing, she broke away and looked at the bubbling skin on her palms.

"I wouldn't try that again." Klaus' voice came from behind her and she twirled around, noticing him for the first time. "You vervained the bars?" She asked angrily.

He shrugged. "Merely a precaution. A much needed one, obviously."

Caroline crossed her arms and huffed loudly. "I'm not an animal."

He smiled in an ironic way and held up a cup full of red liquid. "Breakfast?" He asked. Caroline inhaled the sweet scent of blood and snatched it out of his hands. Getting her neck broken twice had taken a toll on her energy level. "I know O negative is your favourite." He said.

She sat on the edge of the bed as the warm liquid flowed down her throat. "So are you _seriously_ going to keep me here in this cell for the next thirty days? I'm going to fall behind in school, how am I going to catch up enough? I need to graduate you know, this is my senior year! And what about my squad? Did you forget that I'm the cheerleading captain?"

Klaus couldn't hold in his laugh. She was truly a teenager. "I hope that the time you spend here with me will make you realize that there are more valuable things than such trivial high school problems."

Caroline sneered. "High school is a rite of passage and I tend to finish it." And then she huffed again. "Are you going to sit down here and bug me the entire time?"

His lips twitched. "Maybe."

"Fine, then I want to talk about Tyler. Free him from the sire bond." Caroline pushed. Klaus' face broke into a full on grin. "Why are you smiling? I'm serious! And don't think that I've forgiven you for making him bite me. That really hurt."

"Oh Caroline, are you forgetting that I also saved your life?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, _after_ you endangered it! And then you kidnapped me! So I say that your argument is invalid."

"Whatever you say, darling." And then he got up to leave.

"Wait!" She called after him. "What about Tyler!?" Her answer was the sound of the upstairs door shutting. With a pinched face, she downed the rest of her glass and slumped back into the bed.

What the hell was she supposed to do down here by herself for the next thirty days? Bonnie had better hurry.

* * *

Back in Mystic Falls, Bonnie was panicking. How the hell was she going to convince Stefan to give the coffins back to Klaus, to save Caroline? He almost ran _Elena_ off a bridge the other night. He was past the point of caring.

She sat down and tried to think clearly. She didn't need to rush this and risk screwing up, she had a whole month before Klaus harmed Caroline. As long as she didn't do anything stupid to piss him off, Caroline would be fine.

She had time to plan.

Her first idea was to try Tyler. He was Klaus' first successful hybrid, and the only one that was allowed to stay in Mystic Falls. Bonnie could only hope that Tyler had an idea of where he could be.

She knocked on his door rapidly, and the look of expectancy on his face dropped when he saw it was Bonnie there. "Oh, hey Bonnie," he said dejectedly. "I just thought you were Caroline. Come in, what's up?"

She gave him a look. "Why would you think that I would be Caroline?"

Tyler led her into one of the back rooms, where he shut the doors tightly. Bonnie didn't usually visit him and he knew that it had to be important, so he didn't want to risk anyone overhearing. "We had a fight the other day, after I… Well you know. I haven't heard anything from her since."

Bonnie took a breath. "There's something you should know about Caroline, Tyler. Klaus kidnapped her."

"What!?"

"He must have been invited in so that he could feed Caroline his blood, and he used that to his advantage. He took her somewhere and he's threatening to rip her heart out if we don't get Stefan to return his family." Bonnie explained as quick as she could.

Tyler was pacing now. "Well okay, then just return the coffins Bonnie. It's that simple."

Bonnie tried to hide her annoyance. "It's not that simple, Tyler! Stefan will kill me before I can even get one of those coffins out of there. And they're being hidden by one hundred dead witches that absolutely hate him! There's no way they're just going to let me waltz in and take them. Especially not for a girl that they don't even know. A vampire to be frank."

Tyler tried to brainstorm. "What about a locator spell? We could use her mother's blood to find her."

Bonnie shook her head again. "I can't. Klaus has his own witches. As powerful as I am, there are more of them and I do not doubt that they are going to be old and strong. He threatened to have them kill me and then without me, there would be no one to get the coffins. So Caroline would die."

Tyler sat down again next to her and put his head in his hands. They were both frustrated. "This is all my fault," he moaned. "If I hadn't bitten Caroline, there would have been no reason for him to be invited in. He wouldn't have been able to get her. I would have been protecting her."

Bonnie shook her head. "No, this is no one's fault except Klaus'. There's only one thing I can do." She stood up and started to walk towards the door.

Tyler followed her. "Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm going to talk to Stefan."


	3. Chapter 3

Day #2

Caroline was bored. There was no other way to describe how she was feeling. She felt hungry, lethargic and frustrated. All of those emotions together summed right up to boredom. She sat up in the fluffy bed, looked around, huffed and then flopped back down. There was _nothing_ to do! "Klaus!" She called again, for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

Finally, she heard him coming down the stairs. "What, Caroline?" She could hear the stiffness in his voice. He was annoyed.

"Oh I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something important?" She asked.

"As a matter of fact, you did." Klaus answered.

Caroline snorted. "Good. And yes, I can see that you're annoyed with me. But maybe if you had thought this plan through and given me something to do like maybe cable, I wouldn't be bothering you so much."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Caroline sweetheart, you're supposed to be a prisoner. You're not staying in a five star hotel."

"I would hardly consider this a five star."

He clenched his teeth. "If I bring you down a TV, will you stop bothering me?"

She nodded and as he retreated, she called out, "Make sure I have cable too! And bring me a blood bag, I'm getting hungry."

Klaus was beginning to think that he kidnapped the wrong vampire.

* * *

Bonnie was at her wit's end.

Trying to convince Stefan to give up those coffins, when the only emotion that he was capable of feeling was blind rage to Klaus, was proving impossible. He had simply laughed in her face, something that Bonnie did not take kindly to.

She wasn't proud, but she may have given him a teeny tiny brain aneurysm before she stormed out of the Salvatore boarding house.

So last night proved to be a bust, so she called in reinforcements that were more likely to come up with a better plan than Stefan. So Bonnie, Elena, Damon, Tyler and Alaric sat around the Gilbert table, brainstorming a way to get Caroline out of there without giving up the coffins.

"Just do a locator spell, Bonnie. I'm sure we can find enough muscle to take down Klaus, especially with the element of surprise." Elena suggested.

Bonnie tried her best not be frustrated, reminding herself that she had not informed Elena of Klaus' threats. "Klaus threatened to harm both Caroline and I if I tried that. He says he has witches ready to take me down."

The ever cocky Damon laughed. "He's bluffing. You should do it."

Tyler shot him a glare. "And what if he's not? Are you really willing to risk Caroline's safety on the off chance that he is bluffing? And Bonnie? Without her, we have no chance at all."

"Relax, hybrid boy. Caroline won't be harmed because he's _bluffing_."

Tyler, ready to retaliate, was cut off by Bonnie. "No. I don't care about my safety, but we are not taking that chance and risking Caroline, especially when we have no idea where she is."

Tyler sat back, looking all too smug and Damon rolled his eyes. "Whatever, your choice," he muttered.

Alaric, sensing the tension, spoke up. "Alright guys, so the locator spell is out. Anyone one else have any other ideas?"

"I have a great idea. How about we just torture Stefan until he gives up the coffins?" Of course that was Damon. Elena automatically smacks him.

Bonnie shook her head. "He knows that if we kill him, we have no chance of getting them back. And he's not scared of us."

"This leads us right back to the locator spell!"

Elena's face starts to change. "Bonnie, Tyler… I think he's right. It's our only option. We owe it to Caroline to at least try and hope to God that Klaus is bluffing."

Bonnie, unfazed about the chance of getting herself injured, turns to Tyler. "I'll only do it if you're okay with it."

After a quiet minute of deliberating, he finally nods, resigned. "It's our only choice. We're going to need to call the Sheriff."

Damon was on it, and it didn't take very long for Liz to show up at the Gilbert house, looking sick with worry. Damon takes her arm and leads her into the kitchen, where Bonnie is quietly sitting in front of a map. "I'm really sorry about this Liz, but we're going to have to slice open your hand and take some of your blood." He says gently.

"It's okay with me if it'll help bring Caroline back. I should have never have invited him in." She moaned.

Bonnie lifted her head. "It's not your fault." She said gently. "He's just evil. Now step forward so I can take your blood and find her." She took Liz's hand in hers gently and slices her palm open with a small knife. Liz flinches, but composes herself and Bonnie drips her blood overtop of the map on the table, lets Liz go, places her hands on the map and starts chanting.

The others stand back silently and watch as the blood starts forming itself around the map. It seems to head in one direction when all of a sudden, it starts bubbling like acid, burning through the map. "What's happening?" Elena asks from the side.

Bonnie's eyes fly open and she watches the now acid blood head towards her hands. She tries to move, but she's paralyzed. The acid creeps up over her fingers and the skin across her entire body starts to smoke. She can't help but let out a terrifying scream as her smoking body starts to shake.

The others watch stunned as Bonnie's eyes roll into the back of her head and the whites of her eyeballs start to shake. Suddenly, the smoking stops and she turns towards the group, face devoid of any emotion. "I have a message from Klaus." The voice says, sounding like Bonnie but so clearly not her. "He says 'I warned you. Now Caroline will suffer along with your witch. You have 28 more days to successfully give me my family and I suggest, no more tricks.'" And then Bonnie goes stiff, gives one last jolt and falls off the chair, unconscious.

Elena rushes to Bonnie's side, shaking her and trying to wake her up while Alaric goes to find a cool washcloth. Liz stands frozen beside Tyler, who is cursing under his breath and she shoots a frantic look at Damon.

Damon feels overwhelmed with guilt for a short moment for this being his bright idea, although he would never admit it. And he knows that everyone is wondering the same thing.

What is he going to do to Caroline?

* * *

Back in the middle of nowhere, or at least that's what it felt like for Caroline, she was finally feeling content. She had a thermos of blood in her hands, a bag of chips and cable television. She hadn't bothered Klaus since he brought it for her, because she knew that's what he wanted. He was obviously up to something, or he never would have given into her demands so easily.

She didn't really mind though, whatever he was up to, he could do it as long as he kept Caroline fed and not chained up like some kind of animal.

Plus, he gave her O Negative blood. Definitely a step in the right direction for him.

She was contentedly watching the Price is Right and sipping on her thermos, when she heard a loud crash above her head, followed by a guttural roar.

Her heart leapt up into her throat, knowing that Klaus was definitely mad about something. And if it was something that her friends had done, he was two seconds away from storming down here and harming her.

She prayed that she was wrong, but she knew she was right when she heard the door open. She was looking at her lap, but she gathered the courage to look up timidly when the bars to her little cell opened. "Klaus?" She asked quietly, even though she knew it was him.

She could see the rage in his eyes and smell it rolling off of him. Oh no. She swallowed hard as her thermos was snatched out of her hand. "I am not happy." He growled. "It seems your friends really don't care for your wellbeing very much, Caroline, as they have betrayed my instructions. I do fear for your little witch friend's wellbeing, however if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about her right now."

"Are you going to kill me?" Caroline asked quietly. It was definitely a sense of déjà vu for her.

"I'm mad enough to do it. But lucky for you, I'd lose my leverage if I did that. Although, it's not like they would know…" He seemed to think about it for a short moment, and Caroline actually started to get scared. If only she knew how he felt about her. He was really trying to find the nerve to harm her. Finally, he spoke. "However, I do have to make you suffer, unfortunately."

His face started to change and he snarled at her, as his eyes went yellow and he made the partial transformation to a werewolf. Caroline's heart started beating in panic when she realized he was going to bite her. "Please, don't." She begged.

Luckily for Klaus, he was out of his human instinct or else the terror in her voice would have been enough to make him hesitate. Instead, he bared his teeth and went straight for her neck.

Her scream would have woken anyone in a two mile radius, if there was anyone.

Instead, she was left alone as Klaus let her go, turned and made his way out of the basement. Caroline watched as her wound healed up quickly, and then she slumped to the ground against the wall in tears, waiting for the pain and the hallucinations to start.

She just wanted to go home.

Meanwhile Klaus, trying to push down the hint of humanity that was threatening to creep up on him, dialed Elena's cell phone with the phone that he had his witches spell so that it couldn't be traced. He would have called the witch, but he knew that she would still be passed out for quite some time. He hadn't killed her, as much as he wanted to, because he needed her.

Elena answered on the first ring. "Klaus."

He chuckled. "Hello Elena. Expecting me, I see."

"Where's Caroline?"

"Rest assured that she is still alive. However, she is not well. I bit her." He said solemnly. "And I will not heal her unless you promise me that you and your little friends will not pull any funny business."

Elena was silent for a moment. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Klaus rolled his eyes and headed back downstairs, where Caroline was curled up in a ball on the floor, covered in sweat and muttering under her breath. He put the phone on speaker and sat down next to her. "Caroline, love?"

She whimpered. "Daddy, please no more. I'm still your little girl, I'm still Caroline!" She cries out, pushing at Klaus' arms. "It hurts, it hurts."

Klaus stroked her matted hair. "He won't hurt you anymore sweetheart, I promise." He soothed and she went quiet with her head in his lap. "You see, Elena, she's already started hallucinating. I believe she has till the end of the day before the poison consumes her. So tell me, do I have your word?"

Elena was still skeptical. "If you kill her, you have no leverage."

"Don't be fooled dear. I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeve. This is just my first one. So tell me, do I have your word?" He emphasized.

Caroline cried out in pain again, which finally sold Elena. "You have my word." She said quietly.

"Good. As I said before, you have twenty eight days left. Better hurry." He clicked the phone shut and slid it across the floor, focusing in on Caroline. "I really am sorry that I had to do this again, sweetheart." He spoke to her quietly. He lifted her body up into the bed, where he let her suck some of the blood out of his wrist lethargically. "Rest now, love. You're safe now."

Her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep. Klaus sat on the bed beside her for a moment, stroking her hair regretfully. He prayed that nobody did anything stupid again. He really hated seeing her in pain.

Klaus sighed to himself and sprung off the bed hastily.

Yep, he had definitely kidnapped the wrong vampire.


	4. Chapter 4

Day #5

Bonnie awoke with a gasp, shooting up out of bed with a cold sweat. She felt her hands trembling and she glanced up at her arms, checking for burn marks or discoloured veins. She found none, her skin was perfectly normal.

Pushing her sweaty bangs off of her forehead, she tried to steady her breathing. What a horrible nightmare…

"How are you feeling?"

She jumped with a gasp, adjusting her eyes to the dark to spot Alaric sitting solemnly in a chair in the corner of her room. "Alaric? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"We were worried when you didn't wake up so I volunteered to keep an eye on you until you did." He came to sit next to her, offering a glass of water that she drank gratefully.

Finally, she came to the realization that the horrible dream she just had was in fact, not a dream. Her eyes widened and she cried out, "Caroline!"

"She's okay now. He backed down after Elena swore that there wouldn't be any more tricks. He bit her, but he healed her. She's okay."

Bonnie was trying to adjust, but she was finding it hard to wrap her head around everything. "How long was I out?" She asked.

"Just two days." Alaric said.

Panicked, she jumped out of bed. "Two days!? I wasted two days laying around in bed? Have you guys come up with anything at all?"

Alaric placed two hands on her shoulders and guided her back to the bed. "You need to rest. Those witches that Klaus has are no joke. You were possessed and he told us to stop playing. You almost died, Bonnie. Frankly, I'm surprised you woke up so early. Just stay in bed today, please. I promise that we have a plan."

Skeptical, but too tired to argue, she crawled back into bed. As she closed her eyes, she couldn't help but wonder what the plan was.

At the same time, Elena was pulling up to an unfamiliar house. Damon sat next to her in the passenger seat, but she willed him to stay there. "She's a witch, or was, I don't know. But I doubt she'll take kindly to a vampire just waltzing into her house. I'll be fine." She soothed. "Stay in the car."

Damon didn't like it, but he knew that she was right, so he waited in silence as she got out of the car, brooding with narrowed eyes.

The person who answered the door when she knocked definitely wasn't Abby. He was a younger boy, maybe a little older than her. "Can I help you?" He asked.

"Sorry, I must have the wrong house…" Elena trailed off.

He stopped her before she could turn around and leave. "Who are you looking for?"

"Abby Bennett-Wilson?" She asked hesitantly. A woman appeared behind the boy, her face a mask of calm. "That's me. Who's asking?"

Suddenly nervous, Elena took a breath. "I'm not sure if you know who I am, but my name is Elena Gilbert."

Recognition lit up both of their eyes and suddenly she was hit on the back of her head. "Get the vampire," is the last thing she heard before she met total blackness.

* * *

Klaus was getting fed up. "Caroline, you're being foolish. Open the door." He said between clenched teeth. She had barricaded herself in the bathroom two days ago, after she had woke up and remembered that he had bit her, and refused to come out. "You're going to desiccate from starvation, sweetheart. You need blood. Come out."

Silence followed his request as usual. She hadn't spoken to him in two days, either. He knocked hard with his fist. "I don't care! Go away!" She cried.

A small sense of relief at finally hearing her voice swept through him. "Suit yourself then, love." He said, and finally did what he should have done two days ago. Squaring his shoulders, he rammed right into the door, sending it flying and splintering into the room and revealing a shocked Caroline. Wordlessly, he handed her a blood bag and she snatched it from his hands.

I don't know why you didn't just do that earlier." She snapped. "What was the point of begging me to come out?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to see if I could convince you to come out myself. Obviously, I failed." She stared at him in silence for a minute and then ripped the bag open with her teeth, sucking up the liquid. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was starving. "Are you still mad at me?" Klaus asked.

Her answer was a menacing glare and a curt, "Obviously."

He rolled his eyes with a huff and sat next to her, trying to ignore that she flinched. "Caroline, I had to do it. I couldn't let your friends think they could get away with breaking my rules. I was always going to heal you."

"Were you?" She snapped. "What happens if they didn't back down? What about then?" She was met with silence. "Exactly. You would have just let me die."

"No, I wouldn't have." He blurted out before he could stop himself. "I was _never_ going to let you die, Caroline. The thought didn't even cross my mind!"

Caroline pushed her brows together. "That doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't you?"

Klaus was struggling, debating on whether or not he should say anything. Finally, for once, he decided to be honest. "Because I like you, Caroline, more than I should."

She was stunned. Did Klaus, the biggest and baddest original vampire, the most ruthless and unfeeling person in the world, just admit to having feelings for her? Suspiciously, she narrowed her eyes. "What are you trying to pull?"

Klaus laughed once without humor. "Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

"Why?" He demanded.

Throwing her hands up in exasperation, she said, "I don't know! Because you're Klaus! You don't care about anyone!"

Klaus's calm voice sounded almost like a whisper next to her loud proclamation. "Well, I care about you. You don't have to believe it and you don't have to like it, but I do."

Caroline started to panic as he leaned in. She was positive that he was going to kiss her, yet she couldn't move away. What the hell was she doing?

And then his cell phone rang shrilly and she couldn't decide whether she was disappointed or relieved.

He broke away to look at the caller ID, gave Caroline a long look and then disappeared from her sight. She strained her ears, but she couldn't hear him at all. He must be far from the house.

She stood up and kicked the broken pieces of wood.

Why did he make it so damn hard to just hate him?

* * *

"What?" Klaus growled more forcefully than necessary when he answered the phone. Whoever it was should prepare for his wrath, because they couldn't have interrupted him at a worse time. "You better make this quick before I hang up."

"I have the Bennett witch."

Klaus raised his eyebrows a bit in surprise at the efficiency of his hybrid. "And the doppelganger?"

"Mother Witch says the boy has her tied up, along with the Salvatore brother." His hybrid, Johan, answered promptly.

"Ah, my traitorous partner in crime, Stefan." Klaus said, amused.

A bit of static crossed over the phone line, but Klaus' hearing had no trouble picking up what his hybrid said. "Not Stefan, the dark haired sarcastic one."

Klaus didn't usually get thrown for a loop very often, but he had to admit, he was a bit stunned for the moment. Recovering quickly, he hid his surprise. "Damon. Hmm, then where is the other rogue Salvatore brother?"

"I'm not sure but I hope-" and then he was cut off and the tearing of flesh filled the phone

"Johan!" Klaus roared into the phone.

It was quiet. "Hello, Klaus." Stefan said slowly. "I hope you don't think you're getting these coffins back so easily. You'll never get them back if I can help it."

"Fine then," Klaus said uneasily, trying to hide the fact that he was starting to feel overpowered. "Then you and your friends will never see Caroline again."

"Well it's a good thing for me that I no longer care about Caroline, I guess. And I guess it's another point for me that you're so busy playing the whole hostage strategy that you're miles away from Mystic Falls and I have access to both your coffins, including the locked one, and an ongoing Bennett bloodline. So I guess we will see how long your supposed leverage lasts once I unlock that secret you've been hiding." He could hear the smirk on Stefan's face and his rage started to boil. "Goodbye Klaus. I'm assuming that I'll be seeing you soon."

_Click._

Klaus snarled and hurled his fist through one of the windows of the mansion, watching the cuts heal up. He stormed downstairs in a rage to Caroline, who cowered against the wall. "Please don't bite me again." She whispered pitifully.

The little known feeling of remorse made Klaus stop in his tracks for the moment. Leave it to Caroline to bring him back into reality. "I won't bite you sweetheart. However…" He trailed off, gently grabbing her face with his hand and bringing her eyes up to meet his. "We're going on a little trip, love. I could leave you behind, but what fun would that be? So, I want you to do as I say when we are gone. Under no circumstances will you disobey me, understood?"

Caroline stared numbly back at him. "I understand." She repeated back in a robotic voice.

Klaus was satisfied. "Good. Now come on love, time to go. We have a long journey ahead of us." He held his hand out towards her.

Snapping out of her compulsion trance, she glared at him and stormed past him, bumping his outstretched hand in spite. "As if," she muttered with his previous allure nothing but a distant memory. "Where are we going anyway?"

They both buckled into the car and Klaus finally turned to answer her. "We're going back to Mystic Falls." He said, and then he jabbed a vervain syringe into her neck. She slumped towards him and as her head rested on his arm, he couldn't help but be amazed at how beautiful she was, even unconscious. Before he could stop himself, he touched his lips to the top of her head, inhaled her smell, and then pressed down lightly. "What are you doing to me, Caroline?" He muttered.

God, she smelled amazing.

He shook himself out of his trace, nudged her over to lean against the door and then started up the car. He didn't expect to be going back to Mystic Falls so soon and his love and hate relationship with the small town started to flare up.

After a quick call to his witches, asking them to meet him in Mystic Falls to set up another safe house for him and Caroline, he continued on his solitary drive. Glancing up in the rear view mirror, he finally remembered that he had a daggered Rebecca lying in the trunk of his car.

He made a mental note not to forget about her body, in case one of the nosy Salvatore brothers found her and used her against him. Klaus had lived a thousand years and fought many enemies, but a pissed off Rebecca never failed to be a challenge.

As he reminisced about his enemies, he took a side glance at Caroline, with her smooth skin and golden curls. He had never had a weakness before, when it came to dealing with his enemies and as he looked on at the baby vampire next to him, he knew that she would be his first and only weakness.

* * *

When Caroline awoke groggily, she was surprisingly in bed. It was another bed like the one she had in her cell, except for it was inside of a giant suite complete with a wardrobe, attached bathroom and a giant walk in closet.

On the table next to the bed, there was a note.

_ My dear Caroline,_

_In the closet you will find an outfit handpicked for you. We have a party to attend tonight, so try to look your best, which I assure you will be no challenge. Do not leave the house without me. _

_Klaus_

Caroline scoffed at the note, threw open the door and then walked down the stairs. Did Klaus actually think that she was going to listen to him? She threw open the front door, ready to walk out and find her friends, when her muscles froze up and she stopped mid step.

"What the hell?" She muttered, jerking her body around, trying to pass through the door. An amused Klaus appeared behind her. "What did you do? Why can't I leave?"

Klaus smiled. Instead of answering her, he just looked at her and said, "Caroline, go upstairs and get ready."

Without a second thought, her body started walking up the stairs in the direction of her room. Her mouth fell open in shock. "You _compelled _me? Are you serious right now?"

He just shrugged. "Better than keeping you locked up, isn't it? I figured you'd enjoy being able to see your friends."

"I guess it'd be too much to hope that you're letting me go?"

Another smile, this time a bit forced. "I guess we will see how tonight goes. Please, get ready. We're expected to be at the Salvatore house in exactly one hour."

Caroline, of course, went to go get ready. As she was lingering under the hot water in the shower, she couldn't help but think that tonight was an open invitation for things to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Usually Caroline loved being right, but tonight she wished that she could have just been wrong.

* * *

Klaus felt oddly proud to have Caroline holding on to his arm as they exited his car, even though he had compelled her there. "Do not speak to anyone unless I tell you it's okay. Do you understand?" He murmured in a low voice.

Caroline responded dully. "Okay."

He let his eyes linger up and down her body which was covered with a tight blue dress, all the way up her neck which was completely exposed with her hair all pinned up in curls. If Klaus had a heart, he swore it would have stopped. "You look absolutely lovely." When he was met with a blank stare, he chuckled. "You know that it's okay to respond to me, right?"

"I know, I just don't want to." Caroline snapped, turning her head away from him.

Klaus smiled fondly. "I adore you."

She rolled her eyes. "Sure, because kidnapping and compelling me is sure proving that."

He chuckled. "You really don't take well to being collateral damage, do you sweetheart?" He asked.

"Collateral damage means that I'm not important." She said stonily.

Finally, Klaus got a peek at the insecurity that was Caroline. "I think you have this all wrong, love. You're very important to me."

She finally sighed. "Can we just get this over with? I don't really want to have a heart to heart, not here and not now." He just nodded instead of saying anything, knowing that she was right. However, he did notice her grip his arm a little bit tighter.

Klaus rang the bell and as an afterthought, he whispered to Caroline, "Stay by my side."

Damon opened the door with a sour look on his face, which changed to horribly disguised shock as he caught sight of Caroline. Clearly, he wasn't expecting her. "Caroline…" He said without thinking and then turned to Klaus, trying to cover it up. "Evil hybrid."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Ever the charmer Damon, however your arrogance will be your demise, I assure you." He started to walk and Caroline hung to his arm, walking hesitantly behind him after giving Damon a long, hard look.

Damon shut the door behind him, following the odd pair. He had become slightly attached to the blonde after she had been unofficially adopted into his dysfunctional family and that moment, after seeing Caroline's blank stare, he swore he was going to get her away from Klaus before he managed to screw her up somehow.

He just hoped that their plan didn't get her killed tonight out of spite. Shaking away his thoughts, he followed them into the dining room where Elena sat next to Bonnie on one side of the table, Alaric somewhere in the middle and then Stefan on the far end. He knew Tyler was pacing somewhere in the woods outside as backup in case something happened, but they all knew it was smarter for him not to be there.

Damon knew they made the right decision when he saw how Caroline hung off of Klaus' every word. He was almost positive that she was compelled, but even though, he knew it would have killed Tyler to see her like that.

He watched quietly as Elena stood up with a gasp. "Caroline!" She exclaimed, getting ready to run over. Damon was ready to stop her, but Bonnie was smart enough to grab her arm and sit her down.

The two of them neared the table and then they stopped. "Go ahead love, why don't you sit down?" Klaus whispered to Caroline. She sat down immediately and gave Bonnie and Elena the same blank stare that she had given Damon.

Caroline hated being passive, cold and vague towards her friends, but it was like she was unable to show emotion or ask for help. She knew that Klaus had compelled her, but she wasn't aware to what state until that moment. It was like her body was under a spell, and it was killing her.

The seven of them sat in an awkward silence for a minute, before Klaus finally said, "So what are we eating today? Or shall I say who?" His face lifted up into a crooked smirk.

Stefan stared stonily at him, his stare almost as blank as Caroline's except for it was by choice. "We're waiting on another guest." He said with a matter of fact tone.

"Oh?" Klaus asked with false interest. "And who might that be?"

"Me," said a voice from out of nowhere.

The voice had no meaning to Caroline, but Klaus's face lit up in a horrible recognition. "Mikael," he said in a deadpanned voice.

A man appeared at the top of the stairs, hands at his side. "Hello, _son_." He emphasized. All of a sudden, before she could even blink, he was standing in front of Caroline and shoving a stake through her chest.

All she could do was scream.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: As you have probably noticed, I'm followed the season three storyline vaguely. But of course, there are a lot of differences and I'm going to start to stray from the original story so we're going pretty AU here. And also, some characters may be a little OOC, but hey, what do you expect from a fan fiction? I had a writing bug so I finished this pretty fast and I figured I might as well post it.**

**Thanks to everyone who had been reviewing, following, favouring or doing all three and enjoy!**

"No!" Klaus roared. He saw the fear and shock on Caroline's face as the stake past through her skin. "Not her!" He ripped Mikael away from the blonde vampire by grabbing him into a headlock and slamming him up against the wall. "How _dare _you!?"

The man just smiled at him. "I had a hunch, Nikklaus, about your feelings for this girl. Apparently, my hunch was right." His words had a taunting edge. "Luckily, I had enough sense to aim a little bit too far to the left…"

Klaus spun around, his rage forgotten for the moment as he watched Caroline, now on her knees, curl up and gasp for air. Damon was beside her immediately, ripping the stake out of her chest. She let out a pained cry and Klaus ran over to her, cradling her in his arms. He grabbed her face and searched her eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked pleadingly.

Caroline couldn't control the tears that fell down her face as she let her panic escape. "I thought I was dead!" She cried, burying her face in the crook of his arm. "I almost died."

"Shh, you're okay." He soothed, brushing her curls. He was currently oblivious to everyone else because all he could think about was helping Caroline. After her breathing had slowed, he stood up with a glare directed at Stefan. "You dare betray me like this? Put Caroline at risk of true death?" He spat.

It was Bonnie who replied, her stone mask threatening to break in fear. "He wasn't supposed to hurt her. That wasn't the plan." She said shakily.

"You were dead." He said dully to his father. "I watched you die. I killed you myself."

Mikael gave him a threatening grin. "Well, most of us here are dead, aren't we Nikklaus?" He taunted. "However, I do believe you've underestimated me. You're not the only one who has access to powerful witches. Consider myself very much _alive_, in a sense, for the time being."

Klaus was seeing red, his rage manifesting. "I will kill _every_ one of you!" He snarled at the group sitting around the table. "Starting with you." His eyes narrowed onto his father. "Once and for all, I _will_ be rid of you."

Caroline couldn't find the strength to move from her slumped position on the floor. Getting staked had taken a lot of her energy away, so she looked up helplessly at Klaus as he glared down his father. "You dare challenge me? You will lose, I assure you." Mikael said. "However, the satisfaction of killing you so soon would be too easy, after all the hell that you have caused."

There was a glint in his eyes that Klaus recognized too easily, and a shot of fear ran through him. "Get her out of here." He said lowly to the others in the room. Damon was across the room again in an instant, lifting Caroline into his arms and starting to head out of the room behind Alaric and Elena. Stefan and Bonnie stayed where they were.

Mikael quickly disappeared from Klaus' view, knocking Damon against the wall. In an instant, Caroline had disappeared from his arms and Mikael had her in his grip again, gripping the stake that she had originally got out of her chest already, positioned right by her heart.

Bonnie was on her feet, eyes directed right at Mikael and he fell to the ground, clutching his head in pain. "Maybe I'm mistaken, but are we not on the same side?" He managed to choke out in a strangled voice.

"You promised to kill Klaus. You never said you were going to harm Caroline." Bonnie snapped. "I won't let you hurt my friend."

In a mere moment, Mikael was back on his feet, trapping Caroline. He smirked at the surprise on Bonnie's face. "I've been around a long time, dear Bonnie. You must do better than that." And the he looked at Caroline, stroking the side of her face. "Now, what better way to kill Klaus than to torture him with his only weakness? Why give him the satisfaction of death, when this could be so much sweeter?"

It was Stefan who finally spoke, with a heavy realization. "Klaus is in love with Caroline." He announced and Bonnie shot him a shocked look as it finally hit her as well.

Mikael laughed and it was a chilling sound. "You two need to brush up on your perceptiveness. I figured it out the minute they walked in the room. Dear _Klaus_ has fallen in love with a baby vampire. How unfortunate for you it seems, falling in love with such a weak creature. This girl will be your demise, my son. You have many enemies who will jump at the chance to grab the girl."

"I won't let anyone harm her." Klaus replied in a firm voice. "Let her go, and we will settle this once and for all."

Mikael gave a wry smile. "Now you see, why would I do that? I'd much rather keep her."

Caroline's chest felt heavy. She knew that if she was taken by Mikael, he would do horrible things to her. Caroline had been tortured twice, and it's something that definitely doesn't get easier with experience. As she tried to formulate a plan, she realized that the stake that had once been in her chest and held over her heart, the one that Mikael was letting dangle so carelessly at his side, was a white oak stake.

Frantically catching Bonnie's eye, she gestured wildly with moving pupils to the stake and mouthed '_magic_' to her. It didn't take Bonnie much time to catch on to Caroline's plan, and using all the power that she could muster, she directed all her energy towards Mikael.

The lights started flickering, the curtains blew around, one of the lamps in the room shattered and Bonnie's nose started bleeding. Mikael's bones began to crack and twist and he abruptly dropped Caroline, who took his moment of weakness as a chance to grab the stake, turn around and jab it into his chest.

Staring right into his eyes as he began to wither, she spat, "go to Hell."

His body clattered to the ground and set fire, along with the stake. Caroline watched it burn in satisfaction, only pulling away when she noticed Bonne crumple to the ground out of the corner of her eye. "Bonnie!" She cried out, rushing to her friend's side. There was blood dripping off of her chin.

The veins in Caroline's eyes tightened out of reflex, but she ignored it and cradled Bonnie's head in her arms, which she was too weak to hold up herself. The witch opened up her eyes into a squint. "Did we get him?" She rasped.

Caroline smiled weakly at her friend. "We got him. You can rest now, Bonnie. It's okay." Bonnie let her eyes closed and she drifted off, feeling weak and drained. Caroline looked up at Damon, who was recovering from getting his head smashed against the wall and finally getting to his feet. "Get her home, Damon. She needs to sleep."

Damon obeyed silently, and Caroline also got to her feet wearily, licking the blood off of her fingers. Unconsciously she drifted back over to Klaus' side, either the result of compulsion or fear, and he gripped her arm tightly. Deep down, Klaus was scared that she was going to disappear. She seemed to have a knack for getting kidnapped. "Now…" Klaus said slowly, starting directly at Stefan. "What am I going to do with you?"

Stefan smiled all too smugly. "Nothing. You lost your leverage, Klaus. We all know that you won't hurt Caroline anymore. So if you kill me, you won't get your family. You've seen what Bonnie can do alone. You can only imagine the power that she has with others."

Stefan's mouth snapped shut and the minute that Klaus sped off, he knew that he had said too much. So he called Damon. "Klaus knows. Get them out." And then he hung up, leaving the room and Caroline behind.

She stood in the room bewildered, unable to figure out if she was still Klaus' prisoner or not. When the front door open, she spun around expecting Klaus, but surprisingly feeling disappointed when she noticed it was someone else. She recovered quickly. "Tyler!" She exclaimed.

His face filled with relief. "Caroline…" He breathed and pulled her into his arms for a kiss. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe."

As he pulled her behind him out of the Salvatore house, she couldn't help but notice that she didn't quite feel the same excitement around him.

* * *

Klaus knew exactly where he was headed when Stefan mentioned Bonnie and the witches and he berated himself for not thinking of it earlier. Of course those damn dead witches would be willing to hide the coffins. They would do anything to ensure Klaus' unhappiness.

The minute he entered, he was immediately assaulted. Through his pain, he managed to spit out a threat. "Reveal your secrets to me, or I will kill off every single bloodline that you have. That's a lot of dead ancestors, believe me."

And just like that, four coffins appeared in front of his eyes. Smiling with relief, he started to haul them into the moving truck that he stole and headed home. When he pulled up to his mansion and started to roll them into the house, he thought that something felt eerily wrong.

It was too… Easy.

In a panic, he began opening up the coffins.

Empty, empty, empty. The first three had no signs of his sleeping brothers. No Kol, no Finn and no Elijah. Snarling, he turned his attention on the fourth and final coffin, the locked one. When he touched the latch, it swung right open.

Empty.

Klaus could feel the shock settling into his body. "Looking for me, brother?" Someone said from behind him. Someone with a voice that he hadn't heard in many, many years.

"Kol," he breathed.

He opened his arms wide dramatically. "Surprise! Finn and Elijah are around here too, regaining strength I would say. Oh and undaggering our dear sister Rebekah, trapped in the trunk of your car. What did she do to piss you off this time, brother? I guess it really doesn't matter because you don't need that much of a reason to dagger your family as it seems."

"What do you want from me?" Klaus asked stonily.

Kol shrugged. "Revenge of course, however with you being an all-powerful hybrid that might be a little hard."

"How do you know about me breaking the curse?"

"Elijah. He was the one to save your miserable arse before you daggered him. You really are a mean bastard aren't you?" Kol said with a laugh. "Now, how am I going to do this?" After a quick pause, he stabbed a piece of metal dipped in white ash through Klaus's hand.

Klaus yelled out in surprise and yanked it away. "So you're going to torture me? That's quite low of you, Kol. I expected better."

"You haven't seen low yet. However I promised our brothers that I would wait for them so you're in luck. But when they get back, you will know no worse horror." Kol threatened.

"You will do no such thing, Kol Mikaelson."

The two brothers forgot their feud for the moment and stared at each other with wide eyes. That was a voice that they _both_ thought they would never hear again. In sync, they said, "Mother?"

She stepped forward in all her glory, silently like a whisper, perfectly coiffed like she had never even died. "My dear Kol, my dear Klaus."

"Are you here to kill me?" Klaus whispered.

Esther pursed her lips. "No, I am here to forgive you. Just like your brothers and sister should. That is what family does. Nikklaus, are you really willing to risk everything over a silly grudge with your family? Especially now that you have found someone to care about."

Klaus shot her a look. "How do you know about Caroline?"

"The Bennett witches released me yesterday and I have been following and listening ever since. I watched you take down your father from the confines of the Salvatore house and I watched you protect her with your life. You are in love with her, are you not?" Esther prompted, causing Kol to look at him in disbelief.

"You, in love?" He asked with a taunting edge. "Unbelievable, I must tell the others."

And then he sped off out of the house. When Klaus went to follow him, his mother stopped him with both hands. "Why won't you let me go?" He said tersely. "What if he tries to harm her?"

She smiled softly. "Your distrust is a problem. You must have faith in him because he is your family. I trust he will not harm Caroline. Now please, sit with me and talk. We have much to catch up on."

Klaus sat with her warily. She had forgiven him after everything, so maybe his family would do the same. But he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that he had in his stomach.

Unknowingly, he had a good reason to be nervous. Esther had another agenda, much more sinister, that started with finding Klaus' weakness. Luckily she had her other children to do that job for her. She would just focus on gaining his trust.

* * *

Caroline knew it was late and she was worn out, tired and sore, but she couldn't sleep. She sat up in her bed, knees hugged to her chest with wide eyes. How was it that she could be a vampire, strong and supposedly fearless, and still be scared so much that she couldn't even manage to close her eyes?

Funnily enough, it wasn't Klaus that she was worried about. Well, not for those reasons anyway. He had basically declared his love for her today. _Her_! Little baby Caroline. That in itself was terrifying enough, but she knew now that he would never hurt her.

But even though she was free from her kidnapping and free from her terror of Klaus, Caroline couldn't shake the bad feeling that she had in the pit of her stomach. Mikael had "died" once and came back, what if he did it again? And he was going to come after her, because Klaus loved her.

She was a liability, being the only thing in the word that Klaus actually cared about. How does someone get over that fact?

Just as she was beginning to calm herself, there was a knock at her door. She froze stiff, debating on whether she should open it. Her mother should be coming home from work soon, maybe it was her and she had forgotten her key? Caroline didn't usually lock it, but she was too scared not to.

Or maybe it was Klaus coming to explain what had happened today. Although she didn't doubt that he would just barge right in.

After a quick moment of debating with herself, she decided to answer it. If it was a human and they tried to harm her, she could easily take them out. If it was a vampire that had been invited inside, she knew they wouldn't harm her because they were her friends and if it was a vampire who hadn't been invited inside and did want to harm her, all she had to do was stay inside the doorway.

She peeked through the peephole, but she didn't recognize the figure standing there, so she peeled the door back and poked around. "Can I help you?" She asked.

The man, or boy maybe, he had one of those faces, smiled at her. "Well, well, well, you must be Caroline. I have to say I'm not disappointed one bit."

She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?"

He gasped in false modesty. "Oh I'm being rude aren't I? We haven't met. I'm Kol Mikaelson and _you_ are Caroline Forbes, the object of my brother's affections."

Caroline's eyes widened. "How did you get out?"

"Surprisingly, it was your friend Damon Salvatore un-daggered me. I'm assuming to get back at Klaus. Your little boyfriend sure does have a lot of enemies. Does that scare you?"

Caroline was good at staying calm in tense situations because she has had a lot of practise, so she just gave him her famous bitchy face. "He's not my boyfriend. I couldn't care less about him."

Kol just shrugged. "It's a shame that doesn't really matter. You will still be harmed by many enemies, anxious to get back at Klaus." He caught eyes with something and gestured with his head towards Caroline. "I'm assuming you know my sister, Rebekah?"

The other blonde vampire smiled a dangerous smile. "Caroline." She said in a bored voice. "I hear you've got my brother in a tizzy. All finished with Tyler already? I call dibs."

Caroline clenched her teeth. "What do you _want?_" She repeated.

"We want you to come outside and play, Caroline. Pretty please?" Kol mock-begged.

"I'm not leaving my house and you can't come in." She growled, getting ready to slam the door when she saw her mother's squad car pull up. "Oh no," she whispered to herself.

"Well, well…" Kol said. "Your mother, I'm assuming?" Liz got out of the car slowly, shotgun in hand. Caroline recognized it as the one she carried around with wooden bullets in it. Unfortunately, her mother had no idea that those bullets were useless. "Hello, Sherriff Forbes!" Kol greeted. "How are you on this lovely evening?"

Liz narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Who are you?" She asked the two of them. "Why are you at my house?"

"We were hoping that we could play with Caroline. However, she doesn't seem to want to come outside so I guess we'll just have to play with you instead." Kol said.

She aimed the shotgun up at his chest. "I've got wooden bullets in here laced with vervain." She threatened.

Kol smirked. "Go ahead, shoot me. See what happens."

"Mom, don't!" Caroline cried. "They're Originals!"

Liz's face dropped and she lowered her gun. "Smart girl." Kol taunted, sending a glance to his sister before speeding behind Liz and grabbing her head in his arms. Caroline cried out and Kol said to Rebekah, "If she comes out, grab her."

That stopped her in her tracks. How could she even attempt to save her mother when there was no chance that she was even going to make it to her? She knew Rebekah wouldn't hesitate to grab her, so she stayed where she was. "Kol, what are you doing?" Rebekah asked, sounding mildly confused. This obviously wasn't a part of their plan.

"I want Caroline to come out now, or I will snap her mother's neck." Kol threatened, and Liz shot Caroline a frantic glance and shook her head back and forward, telling her not to. "No? Fine then say goodbye to your mother."

Both Caroline and Rebekah looked panicked and Caroline started to run towards them. "Kol don't!" Rebekah cried, but she was too late.

The cracking sound that filled the air was enough to send Caroline to her knees, along with the terrified look on her mother's face. "What have you done!?" Caroline cried, getting to her feet and rushing over to where her mother lay after Kol had dropped her. "Mom? Mommy, wake up! Mommy? Mommy, please!" She sobbed, cradling Liz's head in her arms.

Rebekah was appalled. "You said there would be no killing."

"Did I? I guess I lied." Kol said in a bored voice.

"Nik is going to kill you. He's going to kill us." She said in a frightened voice.

Kol shrugged. "I'm not worried so grab Caroline, now."

"No."

Kol rolled his eyes. "You know what? I knew you were going to do this. You always loved Nik the most. Pity on you, Rebekah, because he doesn't love you. The only person he loves, apparently, is this girl right here."

"I won't let you harm her anymore. Not after what you just did to her. We need to leave." Rebekah said.

"Fine." Kol looked down at Caroline. "Consider this a warning for the next time you decide to disobey me." Caroline didn't even look at him as he talked and she didn't look as the two of them disappeared from her front grass. She just sat there with her mother in her arms, and her blank eyes staring up at nothing.

Her heart felt like it had so much pressure on it that it was being crushed, but she just sat there, stroking her mother's hair. "I'm sorry Mommy." She sobbed. Caroline wasn't sure how long she sat there alone, but at some point, he showed up. He just stared at the scene in front of him in horror, unable to process it. Caroline lifted her head to stare at him with tear filled eyes.

"Caroline, love, what happened?" He whispered.

She let out a gasp of air. "Look what they did, Klaus." She said in a strange tone. "Look at what they did. They killed her."

**A/N: Poor Caroline.**


	6. Chapter 6

Where was she? Caroline's mind was having trouble grasping and holding on to her surroundings.

She blinked four times, maybe five to clear her hazy eyes and realized she was in her bedroom, staring blankly at her wall. Someone was shaking her shoulders.

Klaus' face appeared at the center of her vision. "Snap out of it Caroline!" He shouted desperately.

Caroline parted her dry, cracked lips. "I'm thirsty." She whispered feebly. "Can you get me a blood bag?" She just wanted him to leave her alone.

He sped off at her request and she laid down in her bed quietly, pulling the blanket over her head and curling up into a ball. She let her tears leak and fall on to her white pillow. "Caroline? Come on out and drink please." Klaus said, shaking her under the blanket. "When I get my hands on them…" He muttered to himself, pulling Caroline into a sitting position.

She was so out of it, nearly catatonic, and it killed Klaus to see her like that. She took a small sip from the bag. "I can't breathe." She whispered. "I can't feel my chest."

He sat down on the bed and held her head against his chest, stroking her messy blonde curls. "It's going to be okay, I promise." He murmured.

"How?" She cried quietly.

"Run away with me." He said without thinking. "That wasn't exactly how I wanted to put it, but I'm serious. Let me show you the world, Caroline. I'll take you anywhere, away from all of this, this entire town. Rome, Paris, maybe even Tokyo."

He was surprised when Caroline gave him a tiny smile. "I'm too smart to be seduced by you." She said in a small voice, with a little laugh at the end.

He smiled back at her and cupped her face, gently, brushing his finger over her lips. "I know." He assured her.

"There's another way you can help me." She murmured. "You can help me forget. Will you do that?"

"I would do anything for you." He said honestly. And he would.

Maybe, he thought, she was going to ask him to compel her to forget or even compel her to turn it all off, so he was completely caught off guard when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his mouth. At first he thought it was a joke or a dream, but when she started to unbutton his shirt, he grabbed her hands. "Caroline, what are you doing?"

"You said you would help me forget." She said breathlessly. And then he understood and he was kissing her back and tangling his hands in her beautiful, beautiful curls.

She went back to tugging the buttons on his shirt open and once she got frustrated with the tedious action, she tore the entire thing off and threw it across the room carelessly. At vampire speed, she ended up straddling his lap and kissing him hard, trying to bury her thoughts.

He removed her shirt himself and threw her on the bed so that he was hovering over her. She started peppering him with little kisses from his earlobe all the way down his neck in a trail. "Caroline…" He moaned under his breath. "Caroline, I love you."

She brought her mouth up to kiss him. "I know." She replied quietly. And then her hands were undoing his jeans and she was sliding out of her pajama pants and there was almost no fabric left between the two of them physically and emotionally.

Caroline felt absolutely raw and naked.

Klaus had dreamt of this moment so many times over the past week and here it was, happening right under his fingertips. He started to kiss down her stomach. "I'll make you forget, I promise." He mumbled against her skin.

And he would make her forget it all.

* * *

Caroline was sound asleep next to him, but Klaus was wide awake. He couldn't take his eyes off of her beautiful, naked form laying like an angel with her golden hair spread across the pillow. He let his finger run up and down her arm and then he kissed the top of her shoulder. "Caroline," he whispered.

She turned her head to look at him, blinking wearily. "Hey," she croaked with a sleepy smile.

"I need you to open your eyes for just a minute okay? I know you're tired but it will only take a minute and then you can go back to sleep, okay love?"

Drowsily, she sat up. "What's up?" She asked.

"Caroline, I'm sorry but…" Klaus murmured, grabbing her face so that she was staring at him and dilating his pupils. "Your mother passed away last night and you're sad about it, but you know that she loved you more than anything in the world. It's hard, but you're going to be okay. After I showed up, I took you home, put you to bed and then left. You went straight to bed and slept dreamlessly. When I let you go, you're going to forget that I was ever here." He kissed her forehead. "I love you, Caroline."

And then he was gone.

Caroline blinked, wondering why she was sitting up when she was so exhausted. Yawning, she figured she could use a midnight snack before she went back to sleep, so she swung her legs out of bed.

When she found herself stepping on something cold, half concealed under her bed, she picked it up with confusion.

A man's belt.

She looked at it for a moment, unable to recognize it and she figured it was probably Tyler's that got forgotten and kicked under the bed. So she shrugged, tossed it onto her chair and headed out into the kitchen to eat.

Klaus didn't go home that night. He found himself wandering around the streets of the quiet town, trying to clear his head. All he could think about was Caroline and how coming back with her to Mystic Falls was a mistake. Not only did he reveal his weakness, he got Caroline's mother killed and his family was released anyway.

"Brother."

Klaus sighed. "Elijah. Come to get revenge on me also? Please, feel free to shoot me while I'm down."

"Ah yes, I recently ran into Rebecca who I have to say is quite terrified of running into your, dear brother. It seems that Kol has gone and killed your lover's mother, Sherriff Forbes. Quite a shame actually, I was fond of her." Elijah looked at his brother curiously. "Tell me Niklaus, how did you let yourself become so vulnerable that you let the little blonde Forbes wiggle her way into your cold, dead heart?"

Klaus looked at Elijah shamelessly with pleading eyes. "Brother, please.I am not a person who easily gives up their pride, but I am _begging_ you to leave her alone. She has already lost enough because of me. Leave her out of our feud. If you want revenge, I'll stand by and take it, but please leave her alone. Please." He begged.

To Klaus' surprise, his brother burst into laughter. "I must say, I don't think I've ever heard you say please that many times in your entire life, let alone one speech. I must admit, I came here ready to hate you but you've changed, Niklaus. Consider a truce." And then he held out his hand.

Klaus looked at it suspiciously. "I don't trust you."

"Why am I not surprised? You see, you should trust me. I am willing to extend you forgiveness _again_ which is mighty noble of me. Besides, I need your help."

Finally admitting it was better to have his brother as an ally rather than an enemy, he shook his hand. "Now tell me what you need me for, Elijah." Klaus said.

Elijah sighed. "Well you see, I'm afraid I do not trust our mother's claim to forgiveness and I am going to figure out what she is really up to. Are you going to join me?"

"Count me in."

* * *

The next week passed in a giant, messy blur. Caroline was up to her neck in explanations and trying to figure out what she should do with her mother's stuff and if it was worth it to compel the real estate agent into letting her keep her house.

After she had boxed all of her mother's stuff up, she was wondering why she even wanted to stay there. She felt absolutely sick to her stomach and overwhelmed by the fact that she hadn't seen any of her friends since her mother's death.

She had been calling for days but everyone's phones were either turned off or they just didn't answer them. Finally, one morning, she got a hold of Stefan. "Where is everyone, Stefan?" She asked him quietly. "How come no one has come to see me?"

"Damon and Elena took Jeremy and have been out of town for almost a week, for safety precautions now that the Originals are roaming free. Huh, guess Damon should have thought of that before he undaggered them." Stefan laughed to himself and then continued. "Bonnie is staying with her mother to try and help her get her magic back and Tyler mysteriously disappeared after the last night you were here."

Caroline let the shock run through her. Nobody knew about her mother's death. "Oh…" She said breathlessly.

"I've pretty much been holed up in the house. Why, what's going on?" Stefan asked and if Caroline didn't know any better, she could have sworn she heard concern in his voice. "You sound different."

She promised herself that she wouldn't cry anymore, but the ridiculousness that nearly nobody knew about her mother's death was unbelievable. "Kol killed my mother last week and nobody even bothered to tell me that they were leaving." She said angrily and then she threw her cell phone across the room and broke her no tears rule.

She was in the middle of sobbing into her arms when she heard someone approach her door. "Caroline?"

Glancing up and wiping the water off of her face, she gave a weak smile. "Oh hi." She muttered to Klaus, who was looking worried. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I came to check on you of course." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Obviously, you're not doing so well."

She let her head fall back against the wall as she laughed. Here Klaus was, someone who was supposed to be a big bad monster with no feelings, asking her how she was doing while her own friends were nowhere to be found. "I was doing fine until I realized I was all alone in this." She murmured. "I've always been there when my friends needed me and now that it's my turn, this place is a ghost town."

"I know it's probably not that comforting but I'm here for you."

Caroline stared at his face for a long time. "There's something different about you but I just can't pinpoint it." She said, pursing her lips. "Did you get a haircut?"

Klaus burst out into laughter. "No, love, I didn't get a haircut."

"Is it true that you're in love with me?" She blurted out. Klaus looked at her with confused eyes, wondering if his previous compulsion had failed. "Mikael, he said that you were in love with me."

"Mikael will do anything to get under my skin." Klaus said, trying his best to dodge the question.

"But your siblings came after me when they wanted revenge on you. Why would they do that to me if you aren't in love with me?"

Klaus gave her a warning look. "Caroline…"

"No, Klaus, I want to know. Are you in love with me or not?" She asked in a stern voice.

Klaus stood up in anger. "Yes, Caroline, I'm in love with you. Does that make any difference? Does that make you feel any better about this whole situation? Because it sure as hell doesn't make me feel any better! We are never going to work, okay? You're just a little baby vampire and if you get involved with me, you are going to get hurt. So leave it alone, okay?"

Caroline just stared at him. "What if I don't care?"

"What are you talking about?" Klaus asked in frustration.

"What if I don't care about all of that? What if I don't care about getting hurt? What if I want to be with you?" She asked.

Klaus' eyes darkened. "Get a fucking clue Caroline!" He roared. "Do you remember how you felt watching Kol snap your mother's neck right in front of your eyes!? Do you want to feel like that for the rest of your life!? I have many enemies, Caroline. Ruthless enemies that will stop at nothing to hurt me, including hurting you!"

"Fine! I don't care! Get out! Get out of my house and don't come back!" She cried, shoving at his chest.

Klaus stared at her coldly. "Goodbye Caroline." He said, and then he made his way out the door.

Caroline rushed behind him to slam the door and then sunk against the frame in tears.


End file.
